Browns Fire Mangini After Second 5-11 Season

Remember when everyone thought N.F.L. coaches would not be fired this season because team owners would not want to absorb the dismissed coach’s contract while paying a new coach with a lockout looming?

Never try to predict the decisions of wealthy men with little patience. With five coaches fired before the season even ended, the first Monday of the postseason began with news that Cleveland had dismissed Eric Mangini after two 5-11 seasons. Mangini’s firing was not a surprise because he was not hired by the Browns’ president, Mike Holmgren, who is completing his first year on the job. But Mangini has two years remaining on a contract that pays him a reported annual average salary of $3.9 million.

In a news conference, Holmgren did not eliminate the possibility that he could return to the sideline, where he built his legend in Green Bay and in Seattle.

“My goal is to find exactly the right person to eventually lead us to the championship,” Holmgren said. “I was hired to be the president of the Cleveland Browns. I think this year, I’ve grown into the job. Having said that, I am also a coach and will always be a coach.”

Mangini, who was hired by the Browns just days after he was fired by the Jets two years ago, joined a coaching unemployment line that included Wade Phillips (Dallas), Brad Childress (Minnesota), Josh McDaniels (Denver), Mike Singletary (San Francisco) and John Fox (Carolina), all of whom were sent packing before the season ended. On Monday, the Vikings announced that Leslie Frazier, who took over when Childress was fired with six games remaining, would become the permanent coach after the Vikings went 3-3 with him in charge.

The Cowboys are expected to make the same move with their interim head coach, Jason Garrett. And Fox is highly regarded and could quickly land another head-coaching job, perhaps in Cleveland. But the process could take much longer in Denver, which is expected first to install the legendary quarterback John Elway into the front office and then let him help choose the next coach. Elway could pursue Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh, who is expected to be sought by several teams.

N.F.L. STATES CASE TO FANS With the regular season over and the clock ticking on the expiring collective bargaining agreement, the N.F.L. sent an e-mail to its fans, laying out management’s position in the labor talks.

The message, sent to about five million fans in its data base — and also distributed to teams so they could distribute it — mentions proposals for the 18-game season (and cutbacks in off-season workout programs) and for a rookie wage scale.

The e-mail offers no new information on the labor talks. But as the end of the season nears, more attention will be paid to the threat of a lockout, and the N.F.L. is clearly making a pitch for fan support in what is likely to be a long, bruising negotiation.

“The N.F.L. is great because fans care deeply about it,” the note, signed by Commissioner Roger Goodell, said. “Economic conditions, however, have changed dramatically inside and outside the N.F.L. since 2006 when we negotiated the last C.B.A.”

The N.F.L. had about $8 billion in revenue last year.

Goodell also talked about the move to player safety, and said some of the “outrageous sums” paid to rookies would be diverted to veterans and retired players.

The union declined to comment on the letter specifically, but it has taken issue with the league’s contention that the troubled economy has hurt the league’s operations.

KUBIAK AND DEL RIO SAFE The Houston Texans are sticking with Coach Gary Kubiak despite another lackluster year that ended without a playoff berth.

But the team made wholesale defensive staff changes, firing the coordinator Frank Bush, the secondary coach David Gibbs, the linebackers coach Johnny Holland and the assistant linebackers coach Robert Saleh.